Break Me Down
by OhGreat
Summary: Like Stevie actually gives a damn that Alex is straight. Stevie/Alex.


One-Shot

"Break Me Down"

* * *

Stevie hopes you know she's not a bad person. She's just uninterested in your type of morality. It's not your fault. It's no one's really. Her childhood practically demanded tough skin and steeled smiles, and when she meets Alex Russo for the first time, she's having trouble, you know, adjusting. She's not used to falling. It's not her thing. People fall for her and she watches it happen.

But damn, Stevie doesn't want to admit it, but she's got it _bad_. Alex is so her type; she's such a brunette, and those legs of hers never seem to end. She's an unwritten adventure that Stevie is dying to try, but why do straight girls have to be so…straight? But whatever, that's never stopped her before.

Alex is like a recipe; she's one part sarcasm, one part indiscretion, and she's underlined with an attractive sort of laziness that Stevie can't seem to get enough of.

They don't sit together in class, which sucks, but Stevie can deal, because Alex hates the distance as much as she does. They don't pass notes, they pass glances, each one stuffed to the brim with implications Stevie likes to read the wrong way. Quick stares and unbridled smirks become their hidden language, because they wade in the same entertainment pool. They're alike.

She doesn't understand Alex, but she wants to learn. She doesn't get the Justin-Alex sibling dynamic—at all—but she'll give it a chance. She doesn't understand how it's earthly possible Alex and Harper can sit together in the same room, let alone pack on a lifetime of friendship, but she'll deal. She'll try to get it. It's what she does. She watches, she learns, all that jazz.

But god, she's having some trouble figuring this girl out. Alex is not a lot of talk; she does what she says and does it well. Her deadpanned, dry, witty self is sprinkled with an unexplainable sense of passion for things no one else cares about. It's just rare and hard to find, but Stevie is willing to find it.

Ambition has never been Stevie's strong point; she cares less about goals and dreams the more work they take, so chasing after Alex is probably a stupid idea. But it's not chasing, really. It's more like following a few steps behind, hoping someone will trip along the way. It's not such a bad thing.

Yet Stevie soon learns that as much as she likes to push, Alex likes to pull.

* * *

When Alex turns eighteen, Stevie's there with a cupcake. It's incredibly pink, and it has an edible bow on top. It's kind of obnoxious.

Stevie holds out the cupcake. "It's for you."

Alex stares, and then her lips twitch, and she's smirking. "Really?"

Stevie leans in. "Yeah, I stood in line for it and everything. Apparently cupcakes are pink. Like, only pink." They both stare long and amusingly at each other, because, really, they're totally hilarious. "Happy birthday, Alex."

Once the cupcake is in Alex's hands, Stevie holds up a candle, places it on top, and lights it with one of her fifteen different lighters she continuously loses. "There. It's not appropriate without a candle."

"Wow, now it really is my birthday."

Stevie smirks. "You're eighteen; you can cash in your own lottery ticket and everything." She leans in even closer. "Let's celebrate after school."'

But they never get to. Stevie lands detention for lighting a candle in the hall, because it could burn down the school, displace families, and then blow up the entire world.

She sighs.

* * *

P.E. is a proverbial battle field of high school students duking it out across gymnasiums, fields, and the occasional basketball court, but for the most part, it is girls avoiding any physical activity in a two-mile radius. Alex, of course, is one of them.

"Now, we need a volunteer to stand in as the battle prisoner," the instructor specifies one day, pointing to an obstacle course and its ending, a kiddie version of a POW game.

Alex, who before was complaining languidly to Harper about why she hadn't skipped class that day, quickly snaps to attention and raises her hand. "Did you say 'stand'? I'll do it!"

Her laziness is relatively unbelievable to those who can't seem to raise their own hands fast enough. Stevie smirks and watches Alex stroll to the far end of the gym, waiting to be rescued but hoping someone will trip and break their leg half-way through.

The instructor asks for two volunteers to attempt the obstacle course to 'free' Alex, and Stevie quickly shoots out her hand.

Harper, who hates athleticism as much as Socrates loves arguing, raises her hand also; somewhere in her mind it's quasi appropriate for a best friend to save her best friend.

Stevie quirks an eyebrow and shakes her head, breathing a laugh under her breath. Harper can win academic decathlons and spelling bees until she passes out, but even Stevie knows she can't play sports to save her life. It's probably the only thing she and Alex have in common, and even then, Alex can be reformed. Harper's a different story.

"Please, Harper, you're not faster than me," Stevie says light-heartedly, brushing back her bangs with a cocky smirk vibrant enough to make Harper want to slap her.

Harper only waves her off and teases, "Maybe, but I don't have the cops chasing after me everyday."

This is a gross miscalculation, but Stevie never has a chance to correct her. There's the sound of a whistle and a bunch of cheers, a good indication to get the hell out of there, so Stevie sets off with a wink to her only opponent. So maybe there were a few times in her life when a few select police offers happened to see her shoplifting, so what? It builds character, and apparently leg muscles—because she's winning, Harper's not, and it all seems to verify it even more—Stevie's got it bad for Alex Russo.

The gymnasium is longer than it is wide, and Stevie spends the next few minutes bounding over six foot walls and racing down long strips of directional tape. The class of students is far away now, little blurred figures growing smaller and smaller, but Stevie isn't looking at them. No, she's looking at Alex, standing at the top of a stack of floor mats at least four feet high.

Stevie can't help but smirk as she bounds up the mats casually and stands in front of Alex. "Hey, you," Stevie says, and then she snakes an arm around Alex's waist and pushes them both off the tower of mats, landing safely on a smaller stack a few feet lower.

Their legs and arms tangle together, and Stevie recovers first, leaning over Alex with the swiftness of someone who's done this before. "I win," she murmurs, staring quietly into Alex's face, the urge to kiss her obnoxiously buzzing through her brain.

Alex snorts lightly. "You're such a mortal-wannabe. For future reference, it's called a teleportation spell."

Stevie grins, brushing up closer to her. "Maybe I wanted to win you all on my own." God, she wants to kiss her so badly, but general political reasons warn her not to, a blinking red light sounding off in her brain, and with frustration she leans back a little. She can pretend for now.

But for once she's glad she backed off, because Stevie is sure she sees—in a small increment—disappointment flash through Alex's eyes.

"You didn't win!" a voice says, and Stevie sighs and glances up at Harper, who has just gotten there.

"Are you kidding me? I've been over here for, like, two hours," Stevie replies back, a mixture of boredom and confusion crossing her face.

Harper shakes her head and points out toward the obstacle course. "You forgot a third of the course," she explains with a laugh, and when Stevie looks around her, notices at least three other obstacles she had completely run passed without even noticing. Well, damn.

So, she'd lost. But as she leaves the mat to head back toward the rest of the class, well, she can't help thinking that—maybe—she might've won after all.

* * *

On a night different from the rest, Stevie and Alex spend the evening casting off homework by stargazing on the roof of Alex's apartment complex. Only it's not so much stargazing as it is navigating the smog and light residue of what seems like the most polluted city on earth. There's just a single star out, and after a great deal of half-hearted contemplation, they realize it's not a star at all, it's a planet. Epic stargazing fail on their parts.

Stevie really doesn't care—like she actually came up here for star gazing, yeah right—but Alex is showing more annoyance with the lack of stars than she is.

"Oh, I know," Alex says, and she flicks out her wand. "There, that's better." And indeed it is. Popping out like pieces of glass are hundreds of stars, illuminating in a way that even Stevie is extremely impressed. Suddenly star gazing seems like a fantastic idea.

Of course, with bright stars comes extreme darkness, and it takes Stevie a minute to realize the streets and buildings around them are now devoid of any light at all. Alex has blacked out the entire surrounding neighborhoods.

Stevie smirks suggestively and then glances back up at the stars. "Wow, I've never seen so many." She waits for Alex to say something, and when she looks back over at the girl lying next to her, realizes she isn't watching the stars. Alex is looking at her. Stevie suddenly feels a little uneasy, but the feeling passes and she nudges Alex playfully with her shoulder. "What?"

Alex looks as if she's pondering something, and then she sits up slightly, staring down at Stevie from an angle. "Can I try something?"

Stevie shrugs. "Sure, what?"

But Alex seems less casual, and when she leans over, Stevie sobers greatly, her body freezing as she feels Alex's skin brush her own. Alex looks hesitant, leaning forward and then pausing, leaning in a little bit more and pausing again, sort of like a ticking clock. She's not looking at Stevie, she's looking at Stevie's lips, and it's only then that Stevie realizes maybe Alex isn't as straight and narrow as she thought.

Finally, with the faintest touch that it almost feels like air, Alex presses her lips to Stevie's, awkward yet understanding. She moves in, holding still like she isn't sure what direction to take, like stepping down the wrong path is really just kissing a girl on a rooftop.

When she pulls back she murmurs something inaudible and then slumps back to the ground, feeling uncomfortable and unsure what to do.

Stevie's body feels icy cold under the sudden shock of Alex's advancement, and as she seeps back into reality, her body warms and her heart speeds up, and she's thinking _did that really just happen_? It's just like Alex to totally forget what she doesn't do well, and out of alarm that she might give up on 'trying', Stevie decides to take the reigns of the situation.

She sits up next and looks down at Alex. "Then can I try something, also?" And when Alex nods, she leans down and kisses her again with more confidence than Alex displayed. The kiss is experimental for one girl but electric for the other, and when they break apart, Alex stares starkly into Stevie's face, so unafraid and bold that it makes Stevie fall for her all over again.

"I feel different when I'm with you," Alex says, her voice low as she sits up to level herself with Stevie.

Stevie is almost hesitant to speak, freaked out for the first time in months that playful banter might seriously screw this up. But for the most part, she's relieved that Alex feels something emotional, rather than just the urge to piss off her parents and rebel against society. Because in all honesty, Stevie's not entirely about flipping off convention; she wants to be with Alex—she wants a relationship, not a behind-the-doors experimental escapade where Alex once kissed a girl and liked it. She's pretty sure that, despite her hard skin, it would break her heart.

Suddenly Stevie feels like she's in elementary school telling a third grade boy she 'likes' him (because back then, everyone told her girls were supposed to like boys. Albeit to say she didn't really agree.). Okay, so she'd been with plenty of girls since then, so why was this one so hard to deal with?

But she has to say _something_, and so Stevie decides on, "I don't want to make you uncomfortable," and it sounds stupid but it's blatantly honest. The last thing she wants to do is panic the girl she has feelings for.

Alex snorts like she usually does when something sounds ridiculous, and Stevie immediately relaxes. They both laugh lightly, and then Alex brings her hands to the sides of Stevie's face and kisses her again. It's a light kiss that grows darker, still hesitant but more malleable, and Stevie leans in further to deepen it, her breath caught and heart racing.

Stevie's in the moment, and when she slips her arms around Alex's back to pull her closer, she forgets all about the caution of the game they're playing, because this better as hell not be a game anymore. Alex doesn't seem to disagree, because her arms are at Stevie's neck, her fingers toying with the ends of her hair.

"I've liked you for a while," Alex murmurs between kissing, and Stevie can feel her mind race at the sound of that.

Stevie smiles into another kiss. "Not as long as I've liked you." She runs her hands up Alex's back; it's almost surreal. "…I didn't think this would ever happen."

And just when she's about to push them both to the ground, she hears a loud, "Alex, are you up there?" It's Teresa.

Alex rarely panics. She usually just gives up before she loses, bored and generally uninterested in the consequences of her actions. But this time it's different, and Stevie sadly realizes that Alex doesn't want anyone to know about this. Alex, hearing her mom's voice, quickly pulls away from Stevie, pushing her back slightly as she looks around in attentive concern for her bag.

"I have to go," Alex strings together, and is that nerves in her voice? She grabs her things, snaps her fingers, and suddenly the city has lights again.

Stevie silently yells at herself, because she _knew_ this would happen, but before she can say anything—even shout out an apology like it really was all her fault—Alex is gone. Stevie almost can't believe what just happened. Did the last ten minutes really even go by?

She sighs and zaps herself down to the street's sidewalk, angry at Alex, but by the time she gets to the end of the block, the only person she's angry at is herself.

* * *

It's hard to go to school the next day. Their lockers are closer to being soul mates than they are. Why the hell, out of every locker in the whole school, did Stevie's have to be in the same row as Alex's? God damn bureaucracy.

The more she thinks about it, the more disastrous the night before becomes. Stevie can see the warning signs a mile away now that the night is over; why hadn't she seen them before? Just flashing around the phrase, 'can I try something' is a good sign that Alex wanted to, um, _try something_. Not start a relationship. Geez.

Stevie exhales deeply, grabs a book from her locker, and then slams the door shut, only to find Alex standing right next to her out of nowhere. She looks unfairly pretty today, and Stevie tries not to pay attention to her, but the pain in her stomach (which is really in the left side of her chest) makes it all so much more frustrating.

"Hi," Alex says, arms crossed as she stares into Stevie's face.

Stevie is understandably less eager to say hello, and she manages an uninterested, "Hey." The disappointment and pain is clear on Stevie's face, even as she tries to hide it.

Alex looks as if she's about to say something else, but instead she leans forward and kisses Stevie lightly on the mouth, hands grazing Stevie's waist.

Stevie all but drops the book in her hand.

When Alex pulls back, she laces her hand with Stevie's unoccupied one. "I'm starving. Let's skip first period and grab food. I think I want a breakfast burrito." And then she turns around, tugging on Stevie's hand to follow her, and Stevie, confused as hell, stupidly tags along.

"Uh…Alex…?" It's the most Stevie can utter in a coherent sentence right now.

Alex looks back at her. "Yeah?"

Alex's casualness is making Stevie feel like she missed something, and so she says, "…About last night…"

"Oh," Alex starts, "Sorry about that. My mom would have murdered me if she caught me up there. And if we're going to try this, I'd rather be alive." She looks amused with herself.

But Stevie, who's starting to get it now, still looks unconvinced. "Try what?"

Alex gives her a weird look. "Was I the only one up there on the roof last night or something? Try _dating_, Stevie. Holy crap, I thought you were on board with this."

Dating. Wow. Stevie isn't listening anymore. She's tuned out. She's gone. Cloud 9 or whatever it's called. She's there. Without so much as even glancing around, she grins and cups Alex's face in her hands, kissing her quickly on the lips. "Are you serious?"

"I'm never serious," Alex replies, mock offended, and then says, "But I will be for you." And then she smirks. "We're dawdling. The burritos are always sold out before nine o' clock."

Stevie smirks back, regaining her confidence. And as they walk out of the school's entrance, she looks down at Alex's hand.

She reaches out and takes it in her own.

* * *

**A/N: **I'm obsessed. I'm sorry. They're soulmates. Don't deny it.

This is so clearly AU I'm not even going to hide it; just the fact that Alex is eighteen is enough to say Stevie never "died" in the end, there's no wizard revolution, and Disney can suck it for all I care. Anyway, this was originally supposed to be called "Breath Caught and Heart Racing" but I like me some provocative titles instead, har har.

I'm also aware some of the tenses are off, apologies, but I think it still flows pretty well.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Wizards of Waverly Place. **


End file.
